The present invention relates to a decentralized simulation system in which a management device and a plurality of simulators are connected via a network, and in which a plurality of simulation models respectively assigned to the simulators under the control of the management device are decentrally executed, and a method for identifying the simulators and the simulation models in the decentralized simulation system.
Recently, in various fields, a computer carries out an arithmetic operation on a model in which a role of a mechanism, an electrical signal, or the like has been numerically expressed in an actual device or plant. In other words, a simulation device capable of checking product characteristics or extracting potential problems by executing simulation in a virtual space, without performing actual verification experiments is used in the various fields. By employing the simulation device, the time or cost required for product development can be reduced and the safety of product development can be improved.
When multiple complex models are to be processed in correspondence with a system of a complex device or plant, a simple simulation device may have a limitation due to hardware controlling an arithmetic operation speed or a limitation due to an increase in the processing load of an arithmetic device processing software. Thus, a decentralized simulation system is widely used in which a model is divided into multiple models and multiple simulation devices corresponding to the models are connected with each other via a network.
It is necessary in this decentralized simulation system to efficiently use hardware capabilities of the overall system in order to reduce the time or cost required for simulation.
In a decentralized simulation system of Patent Document 1, it is an object to determine each model arrangement based on a central processing unit (CPU) load rate or memory consumption amount when an individual model is executed and an actual system resource consumption amount such as an amount of data exchanged with another model. In the Patent Document 1, a decentralized simulation controller has been proposed for measuring system resources consumed by each model, determining an arrangement position of each model in a series of model groups to be subsequently executed on the basis of the measured value, and assigning respective models to a plurality of processors in the determined arrangement position.
The decentralized simulation controller of the Patent Document 1 assigns optimal models to optimal hardware resources and executes simulation in optimal conditions in the overall system.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-342297A
However, for example, even when a hardware resource fails during simulation execution and the maintenance of a system is required in the decentralized simulation controller of the Patent Document 1, it is difficult to discriminate the failed hardware resource since it is unclear which model is assigned to the hardware resource and, inversely, the model assigned to the hardware resource may not be determined from the above-mentioned hardware resource.